President Trump is demanding to meet the intelligence community whistleblower behind the complaint about his controversial July phone call with the president of Ukraine.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, the president demanded to know the identity of both the whistleblower, who did not have direct knowledge Trump’s call, and the person who passed the details of the conversation along.
He also continued his attacks on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for summarizing the phone call during a hearing last week, accusing the congressman of “lying” by reading a “made up” version of the call. Schiff, however, has indicated that his summary was intended to be “at least partly parody.”
Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called “Whistleblower,” represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way. Then Schiff made up what I actually said by lying to Congress……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 29, 2019
….In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the “Whistleblower.” Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 29, 2019
House Democrats announced an impeachment inquiry into the president after the call, during which Trump urged the foreign leader to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice president and his potential 2020 general election rival, and his son Hunter Biden.
In the complaint about the call, which was released along with a transcript of it last week, the whistleblower also accused the administration of trying to conceal the transcript. The White House later acknowledged that the transcript was stored on a separate, more secure system.
According to Schiff, the whistleblower has reached an agreement to testify before the committee “very soon.”
